Minimizing the adverse affects of signal skew and crosstalk are two well-known challenges associated with the design of electrical connectors. Crosstalk results from interference on a signal conductor generated from other signal conductors in the connector. A common approach to reducing crosstalk includes interspersing ground contacts among the signal contacts. Typically, such ground contacts are about the same size as the signal contacts. Because of their size, however, the ability of ground contacts to isolate adjacent signal contacts from interfering electrical fields may be limited.
Skew results from the propagation of different signals along conductors of different lengths. Minimizing skew is an especially difficult challenge in the case of right-angle connectors, which typically include electrical contacts of differing lengths. In such a connector, the end-to-end propagation times for the respective signals in a differential signal pair tend to vary, thereby resulting in signal skew.